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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Today's #flashfiction The Two Numbers

“Live long and prosper.”

Jigsaw, Saw* #quote

I wonder what it'd be like to sense electricity like a shark. Anyway
onto the flash fiction!

The Two Numbers

Number 20 talked his friend, Number 130. They spoke to each other
from their cages, despite the social norm of lab rats talking with
their own family in their own cages. But because of some circumstance
in their youth neither of them could remember when they babies they
began squeaking to each other from across the bars.

Both families of rats had the same fur color and general size.
Number 20 and Number 130 could be mistaken for twin brothers. Lab
rats tended to look similar due to scientist breeding them to be
genetically similar as a baseline. But Number 20 could tell that
there was something different about his friend that was fundamentally
different from him. He couldn't figure it out, but there was
something.

While they talked about the mazes they ran, or the puzzles they
tried to figure out, or the food they had to eat, or the women they
had to woo to make the next generation, they had a wonderful time.
But Number 20 couldn't figure out what was so different about his
friend. Even to the day that his friend dropped dead.

The simple fact of the matter was that every single day Number 130
was being subjected to a new type of cancer treatment. Number 20 was
the control group. The treatment was a failure. But the results did
provide some data that may help some future scientists.

Whether the tests result in success or failure, the amount of cures
and other scientific advancements the rats have helped humans achieve
certainly makes them worthy of a little pat on the shoulder.